L2P Rowing Race 2008 News
The first Briefing Meeting for the London 2Paris Rowing Challenge will be as follows:
- VENUE
- "The Royal Canoe Club"
Trowlock Way
Teddington
Middx
TW 11 9QZ - DATE
- Sunday 17th of May
- TIME
- Meet at 14.00
Aiming to start at 14.15 latest - DURATION
- Aiming to finish by 17.30
- ACTIVITIES
- Powerpoint Presentation on London2Paris Race Ethos / How we will run it / Q and A
- Teams and Individuals
- Advice on Handling the Media/Generating regional press coverage / Finding local sponsorship
- Contracts and Projected Costs
Please confirm your willingness to attend by emailing Jock Wishart at jockwish@aol.com with names and contact details of those attending.
This will be held on Sunday May 17th at the Royal Canoe Club, Teddington, Middlesex commencing at 2pm. One of the main purposes of this meeting will be pulling together crews from the many individual competitors who have applied. This is a "not to be missed" meeting if you want to compete in 2010.
Please contact Jock Wishart on
if you intend to come so we have an idea of numbers.
Race Organiser Jock Wishart, a direct descendant of Robert Burns, took to the water last week to celebrate the 250t anniv of his ancestor, celebrated Scottish poet, Robert Burns.
He lit the wicker statue of Tam O'hanter on his horse Meg (one of Burns' most famous poems) floating on a swollen River Nith to start a firework display in front of 15,000 people.
Said Jock "I've been "afloat" in some strange parts of the world but this was a really amazing experience in my "Home Town" in Scotland.
We wish all our "oarspeople" a Very Merry Christmas and a Guid New Year.
Crews are now being formed and entries are welcome for 2010
The new brochure and conditions for the 2010 Challenge (race) is now available.
Please contact Jock wishart email jockwish@aol.com or mobile 07711 727 298.
ONLY 6 teams will be accepted.
Much of the past few months has been spent disseminating the lessons learnt from the first race. Some of the changes include
- Crews will now be composed of 12 people rather than 10
- There will only be 5 people allowed in the boat for each of the non tidal pursuit races held on the Seine.
- The final leg into Paris will be a fully crewed side by side sprint
STOP PRESS
The New brochure will be ready from the 12th of October.
Apply now
Following the success of the first race in May and extensive debriefing with competitors and organisers it has been decided to run the next event to be known as the London2Paris Challenge in May 2010.
This will be launched this September with the possibility also of another event following on returning from Paris to London.
More details will follow.
When you build a reputation for taking on unique challenges and making them happen I am always being approached by people with strange ideas. It was at the start of the Atlantic Rowing race in the Canaries in December 2005 it was put to me that might it not be a good idea to organise a race based on a record breaking project we undertook some 9 years ago :- the London2Paris Rowing Record...
Hotel Atria Charenton, Paris - 9/05/08
Never, never underestimate what you have achieved!
As I have emphasised from the beginning this is an "extreme" event
It is also a pioneering event with all the "unknowns" that this entails
Yet you have all overcome these odds to get you to Paris. Please bear in mind that only 40 odd people have achieved this up to now.
In 1999 we set a non stop world record of 106 hrs, 14mins and 54secs with a crew of hardened oarsmen containing Olympic and world champions and several people who had already rowed an ocean.
Yet you have rowed to Paris in accumulated times less than that.
By all getting successfully to Paris it has been shown that such a Race can be done and there are has been many lessons learnt on the way.
Much that was put in place was successful but there are things that need to be put right!
If we had not taken the gamble however and run this first race we would never have found these problems out.
Without you, the pioneers, this would never have been possible and in years to come when this race becomes one of the "classics" you will be able to look people in the eye and say. "I was there, I did the first Race."
A great reception and prize giving was held on Friday 9th May - more news to follow...
Langstone Cutters Team photo with Michael Polledri, Jock and CNA Trophy